This document discusses branding and provides steps to develop an effective brand. Branding is connecting a business's message and promise to its actions over time. To develop a brand, a business must 1) identify its most valuable offering to customers, 2) ensure it can deliver on its promise through pricing, operations, and long-term commitment, and 3) consistently communicate its message. Developing a brand is a collaborative process and maintaining consistency is important to building a brand over days, months, and years.

1. Branding is a business topic that is getting a lot of attention
lately. I asked Google: What is branding? There were
152,000,000 results. I believe branding is connecting a busi-
ness message/promise with their actions over a long period of
time.
These are the steps to develop a brand. It is suggested that
process is done as a collaborative effort among the people
that will deliver the promise; everyone who will take an ac-
tion.
1. What does your business offer that is most valuable to
your clients? Value, quality, variety, great customer
service, price, a combination of these? The answer to
this question will form the basis for your stand, what your
company will promise to deliver.
2. What do you need to do to stand behind your promise?
Is your cost structure able to offer the pricing your cus-
tomer wants while staying profitable? Are you and your
employees willing, ready, and able to deliver great cus-
tomer service? Do you have the financial resources to
keep enough inventory? Are you and your employees
committed to deliver over the long-run? Long-term com-
mitment to deliver is critical since this is where great
brands are built i.e., walking the talk over days, months,
years, and years.
3. How are you going to communicate your stand? Con-
sistency is important once brand message is established.
Entrepreneurs often times get tired of their message and
look for changes. “We try harder” is one of the legendary
branding messages that turned into a tag line and a mani-
festo. Ms. Paula Green, copywriter, developed it in 1962
and it is still being used today. Actually, Avis has set a
website: www.wetryharder.com to continue the promise
they made 53 years ago.
Your business is unique and so will be your branding strategy.
Call us at (520)515-5478 or e-mail Mrs. Rachel Norton at nor-
tonr@cochise.edu to set-up an appointment to develop strat-
egies to maximize your profits.
Branding
Connecting your message to your actions—Walking the talk
April’15
Marketing Tip